


of pride and honor

by aizensosuke



Category: Bleach
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Introspection, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, Training, Vasto Lorde Byakuya
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-01
Updated: 2019-02-01
Packaged: 2019-10-20 12:05:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17622074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aizensosuke/pseuds/aizensosuke
Summary: the fifth division encounters a strange hollow out in the deserts of hueco mundo.





	of pride and honor

Abarai Renji does not know how he feels training in the vast desert of Hueco Mundo.

Even with a shinigami captain and lieutenant nearby keeping an eye on them, it feels strange to be out here in the vast stretch of darkness and white sand, the moon high above them the only source affording them any light. It is enough, coupled with his own senses, to know where the Hollows are and when they are coming, to fall back so that Aizen can handle any particularly strong ones who happen to come too close to them. For the most part, there are none. The threatening crush of Aizen’s powerful reiatsu is enough to keep them at bay, and for that, Renji is glad. He’s heard tales about Adjuchas and Vasto Lorde ranked Hollows, and he wants to face none of them on this evening.

He grips Zabimaru tighter in his hand, scanning the horizon for Hollows, focusing on keeping his breathing smooth and even, catching sight of his training partners for the evening. Kira Izuru stands perfectly still, shoulders straight, eyes fixed on the horizon and slightly up, his eyes filled with moonlight that turns the faint blue silvery. Hinamori Momo is closer to where Aizen and his lieutenant, Ichimaru Gin, stand. Their shoulders almost brush as they lean close to speak to one another, their zanpakuto sheathed.

The night air is quiet, and then Renji feels something not quite right, head swiveling to the side, mouth opened to speak when something  _ slams _ into his ribs and sends him flying. He thinks he feels one of them break. The sand beneath him is course and he drags himself to his feet despite the pain, Zabimaru raised and at the ready, eyes pinned on the Hollow suddenly within their group, the bulging and animalistic shape of it.

_ An Adjuchas? How did it get here so fast? _ It must have used shunpo, though Renji did not think Hollows were capable of such things. The creature is massive, a coiled and barbed tail rising out of the sand behind it while massive pinchers snap shut, echoing in the quiet. The Adjuchas cackles and Renji braces himself:  _ scorpion. _ It might be poisonous, then.

“Fall back now!” Aizen’s command is sharp and sudden and Kyouka Suigetsu is at the ready as he throws himself forward, Gin not far behind. “Gin, get them to safety. Now!”

Instead, Gin draws Shinso. “Ain’t like me to let ya face a threat alone, Taichou. Izuru—”

“Got it.” Kira is faster than he has any right to be, but he cuts so close,  _ too close, _ Wabisuke cracking against the Hollow’s right pinscher, sending it crashing to the sand as he darts to where Renji stands. “You heard them both. We need to go now.”

Renji shakes his head as Hinamori hurries up to them. “We can’t just leave them—”

“That’s an Adjuchas-level Hollow!” Hinamori protests, and Renji is seconds away from arguing when she leans past him, looks into Kira’s eyes. “Are you going to be satisfied if Ichimaru Fukutaichou is injured trying to protect us? We have to help them.”

Kira bites down hard on his lower lip, then nods once. “We’ll be in trouble for this likely.”

“So be it.” Renji gives his wrist a flick, pressing his hand against his ribs. “Think it broke one. You can fix it when we get back, right, Kira?”

“Yes.” Kira presses his fingers to Wabisuke’s blade. “If I tap its pinchers enough times, that should do us well. Renji, go for the tail— Ichimaru Fukutaichou!”

The very tail Kira had just spoken of flies out of nowhere, sending Gin flying into the sand. The tang of blood is heavy in the air and Renji doesn’t get a chance to tell Kira he’ll do as asked, watching as Kira throws himself forward, heedless of danger. Renji and Hinamori chase after him, neither of them the type to let Kira do anything alone.

The three of them are a team, and their strength is the foundation upon which that exists.

Aizen’s glasses have fallen off, his eyes sharp and dark as he darts out from beneath the sting of a Cero. “You shouldn’t bother yourselves in such matters, and you know it.”

“You can reprimand us at home, Taichou,” Hinamori says easily, not backing down.

She counters a second Cero with a fireball thrown from Tobiume’s blade and Renji ducks beneath the flames and the smoke, Zabimaru uncoiling and catching the Hollow’s tail to keep it from stinging Kira. The force with which it yanks Renji has him flying off of his feet and he swears, clinging to Zabimaru’s hilt as tightly as he can even as his palms begin to sweat. Adrenaline and fear course through him, indistinguishable from one another.

_ Had a lot of nerve to think Aizen and Gin couldn’t handle this, _ he thinks.

He sees Kira dart beneath the massive Hollow, hears Wabisuke clink against the opposite pinscher and watches it fall into the dust. The force has the tail yanking back so that Renji hits the ground, at least not as hard as the first time. Zabimaru is still wrapped around the tail and he refuses to let go even when the Hollow flings him again.

This time, though, his hands flip free of Zabimaru’s hilt and he slams into the earth.

“Abarai!” Aizen’s voice carries on the wind and Renji coughs up sand and spit, pushing himself to his feet. Zabimaru unwinds from the creature’s tail and Renji makes a blind dive for it, barely avoiding the wicked stinger. “Get away from its tail!”

He swings his head around in time to see the Hollow’s attention shift, to watch the wicked jointed bone coil sudden and tight around Aizen’s throat, cutting off his voice and picking him up off of his feet. It shrieks when Hinamori throws another fireball in its face but shakes it off and  _ pitches _ Aizen, hard enough that Renji thinks his neck might have been broken, and if their captain and lieutenant are dead because of them. He's distracted, trying to throw himself forward toward Aizen, to notice the stringer hurtling toward his face until it's too late, until—

“What did I tell you about causing such disturbances?” The voice is clear, deep, as smooth as silk and it cuts through the sound of battle unlike anything else ever has.

The Hollow swings its head and then there is one long, breathless moment where it is frozen in place before blue blood gushes from numerous wounds all over its body, spilling heavy down its sides as it loses its footing in the sand. Before Renji can react, a figure appears next to the Adjuchas. For a moment, Renji thinks it must be another shinigami who has come to rescue them, perhaps a reinforcement called by Aizen.

Then he sees the bone plating in the long dark hair and realizes it is another Hollow.

“Stop struggling.” The Hollow’s reiatsu flares to life and flattens the Adjuchas, and Renji chokes beneath the weight of it.  _ A Vasto Lorde? _ “You always disturb my peace. And taking a shot at someone when they are unaware is very dishonorable combat.”

He watches as the Vasto Lorde lifts one slender arm, the bone plating on it seeming to break apart into small white shards, splitting into tens, hundreds, thousands…  _ Millions? _ Renji stares in silent disbelief and then the shards  _ glow, _ filling the darkness like fireflies swirling in a dangerous tornado around the Adjuchas before they  _ slice _ .

The creature heaves its dying breath before falling still on the sand and the bones return to the Hollow’s arm, plating bare skin up to the rest, over the back of the hand. The Vasto Lorde tilts his head, and Renji finds himself pinned beneath pale grey eyes.

Before he can speak, the creature is gone. He shoves himself up to look around and finds him standing not far away from where Aizen and Gin have fallen, kneeling in the sand, pale fingers splayed across Aizen’s chest. Renji can see the uncertainty in Kira’s gaze, the outright terror in Hinamori’s, and pushes himself to his feet and staggers toward the Vasto Lorde. What is it doing? Has it come to finish them off?

The Vasto Lorde does not acknowledge them. His fingers glow pale white as he traces an invisible path over Aizen’s chest, and the rattle of Aizen’s breathing smoothes. Nodding to himself, the Vasto Lorde rises, sweeps a hand through impossibly long, black hair.

On his feet, Renji can see the Hollow up close and in detail. It must be a Vasto Lorde, human-shaped and shorter than Renji himself. Black hair spills down broad shoulders and a slender black, as dark as the sky above them, a sharp contrast to the white sand and the white skin visible against the white plating of its bone-like armor. He can see the Hollow hole shot through its chest, can see the line of the horizon through that hole— And then the Vasto Lorde looks at him with those clear, grey eyes against pale white skin, looking directly at him in such a way that it feels like it’s staring into his very soul.

“Your captain and lieutenant are fine,” the Vasto Lorde tells him, and Renji can see dark black swirls spilling out from the Hollow hole like delicate spirals and curls of ink. “I would suggest taking them back to Soul Society. Do you know the way?”

“We need Aizen Taichou to open the way,” Hinamori says, her voice low and faint.

The Vasto Lorde tilts his head. “Is that so? Then I will open the way. Go, and do not come back without proper preparation. You are lucky I was in the area.”

“Why are you helping us?” Kira asks, and the Vasto Lorde studies him silently. “You’re a Hollow. You know what we are, that we kill your kind. And yet you’re letting us—”

“My pride would not allow me to kill those weaker than me without proper provocation. The creature behind you is a different matter, as it provoked me several times.” The Vasto Lorde kneels and lifts Aizen into a sitting position, then slings him over his shoulder as if he weighs nothing. “Gather your lieutenant and follow me. I will open the way for you.”

Renji feels an undercurrent of anger at the sight of his respectable captain slung over the Vasto Lorde’s shoulder like that. “Give Aizen Taichou to me. I’ll carry him.”

The Vasto Lorde watches him and he thinks he notices a slight current of amusement in his gaze before relenting. “Fine. Take your captain. It matters not to me, shinigami.” He pauses, studying Renji's face for a long moment. "It would have killed you, you know. You did not see the stinger coming."

Renji drags his teeth across his lower lip. "I noticed it at the last second. And then you stopped it from killing me."

"So I did." The Hollow studies his face, and when it stretches a hand toward him, Renji does not move even though fear wars for control of his body. Slender white fingers trace the line of the ink on his face, of Zabimaru's tattoo, where it strikes down near his eye. When the Vasto Lorde takes his hand back, his hand moves to the dark marks on his own chest, as if considering the similarities between the two of them.

Maybe Renji shouldn't, but his hand moves before he can think about it, following the delicate curls of those lines so like calligraphy script. The Vasto Lorde lets him up until his touch skitters near the hole and then slender fingers seize his own.

The Hollow is warm. Renji did not expect that.

He lets Renji retrieve Aizen from his shoulder without comment, and Renji is relieved to have Aizen’s weight in his arms, proof that he is alive still in the rise of his chest, the color in his face. And then the Vasto Lorde is walking away, forcing them to hurry up in order to catch up with him, Kira carrying Gin’s unconscious body bridal style.

What is Rukia going to say when Renji tells her about  _ this? _

“Why is he helping us?” Kira asks, his arms seemingly too slender to bear Gin’s weight, but he does it without complaint. “I don’t understand. He should be trying to kill us.”

“Can Hollows have things like pride?” Hinamori asks, doubt clear in her voice.

Renji shrugs, keeping his arms stable— one braced against Aizen’s back, the other under his knees— and keeps walking. “I don’t know. How much choice do we really have?”

The Vasto Lorde leads them far away from where they left the dead Adjuchas and Renji wants to ask why but says nothing; something about this Hollow makes him think that he could be trusted. When they have cleared the distance and Aizen’s weight in his arms is beginning to ache, the Vasto Lorde stops, studies the land around them, and nods his head once more stretching out his hand, fingers tracing a shape in the cold night air.

It looks like the sky and ground ripping open at the seams, a shadowy darkness beyond that Renji recoils from. The Vasto Lorde turns to them. “This is a garganta. You will be able to travel back to Soul Society from this point. Do not waste my time. Go, now.”

Renji stares at him. “Why are you doing this for us? Helping us like this?”

“Because it is the honorable thing to do.” The Hollow stares at him with those grey eyes. “Go, shinigami. Return to your home and tend to your fallen captain.”

Kira is braver than any of them at this point, stepping into the shadowy darkness, and when nothing attacks him, Renji follows after him with Hinamori close behind, her hand resting on Tobiume’s hilt as if she expects an attack. There is none; Hueco Mundo is swallowed by darkness a moment later, and Renji exhales slowly.

Who had that Vasto Lorde  _ been? _

It takes hours still for Aizen and Gin to awaken after Renji and Kira leave them at the Fourth, and the three of them wait just outside in the hall for news of their condition, none of them wanting to admit how badly they failed tonight. Renji sits with his head between his knees and silently laughs at his own stupidity, thinking that his time in this division was too uneventful, not enough to keep him going. If he could hardly handle a training mission going slightly awry, he needs to stay right here he is.

Isane hovers in the hall with them for a moment before exhaling softly. “What happened? The marks around Aizen taichou’s neck make it appear that he was strangled.”

“It was an Adjuchas-level Hollow,” Renji tells her, staring down at the floor. Aizen has always been kind to him, giving him a division to flourish and grow in, and he repaid him like this. “Wrapped its tail around his neck and flung him. We couldn’t stop it.”

“I’m sorry.” Isane pauses. “Unohana taichou wanted me to ask you about the healing signature she found. There were signs of the reiatsu still when you brought him here—”

Kira interrupts her. “A Vasto Lorde-level Hollow did that while we were still recovering.”

“I see.” Isane bows her head. “I’ll contact you when their conditions change.”

Gin wakes up first and they spill into the room, gathering around his bed, Kira almost climbing  _ into _ it in his relief. “I was so worried,” he says, and there is a wetness to his voice that Renji does his best to ignore. “When that fucking  _ thing _ hit you—”

“Language, Izuru.” But Gin lets Kira cling to him, petting down his disheveled hair, a noticeable fatigue in his features. “I’m sorry to have worried ya. We didn’t expect an Adjuchas to show up. Did you lot manage to take down that monster on your own?”

Silence. Then Hinamori shakes her head. “Another Hollow did it.”

They save the details until Aizen stirs, eyelids fluttering open slowly and Renji feels his knees go out from beneath him in relief when Aizen sits up, a hand rising to touch his throat. The light bruising there will plague Renji likely until he  _ dies _ but so be it. At least Aizen is alive and well now, uninjured because of whatever the Hollow did to him.

“A Vasto Lorde?” Aizen asks after the three of them have told their tale, Renji pausing to get Aizen something to drink for his parched throat midway through. He just feels so  _ bad, _ and Hinamori doesn’t try to stop him. “Ah, I see now. That must have been the sakura Vasto Lorde we encountered the last time we were out there, Gin. You remember him?”

Gin nods, still rubbing a hand up and down Kira’s back. “That I do. He said that as long as we kept away from his territory, he wouldn’t be bothering us at all.”

“Vasto Lorde Hollows are powerful,” Hinamori murmurs, and Aizen hums in agreement. “I didn’t even see him show up. He was just there, and he’d already attacked the Adjuchas once before we could even react. I didn’t even notice his reiatsu until he used it.”

Aizen takes her hand in his and gives it a gentle squeeze. “His reiatsu level is abnormally high even for a Vasto Lorde. I’ve seen a few from the distance, but as long as you avoid them, they tend to leave you alone. None of them seem to want to interfere with shinigami sheerly for the annoyance of it all. Not that I can blame them, not really.”

“We couldn’t have scratched him if we tried,” Kira murmurs, his head bowed.

Gin bumps their shoulders together. “Don’t look so down, Izuru. Ya really couldn’t have, that much is true. But now ya know that even Hollows are more than anyone’d think.”

“He said something about pride and honor,” Renji says, and Aizen nods patiently, sipping the tea Renji brought him. “I just. I didn’t know Hollows could have those.”

“Byakuya is not like most Hollows in that respect, I do not believe, but it appears that as Hollows evolve, they gain rather interesting traits that you’d attribute to humans and shinigami. Remember, they were humans once.” Aizen looks thoughtful, but Renji frowns.

“Byakuya,” he echoes, and Aizen blinks at him before nodding once. “Is that his name?”

“Yes. As I said, we’ve met him previously.” Aizen seems confident in this answer.

Kira clears his throat. "He touched your tattoos, too? What was that about? I didn't understand what he wanted."

"Byakuya is interested in shinigami. I wonder if he might have been one, once." Aizen's voice is low and thoughtful, and Renji balks at the thought of a shinigami's soul chain disintegrating like that. "Nevertheless, you have earned yourself a very powerful ally from the sound of it, Abarai. Take some enjoyment in that. Byakuya is a reasonable enough Hollow, but I have never heard of him being interested in such a way before."

Renji has no idea what he's supposed to say to that, so he says nothing.

Despite the results of this expedition, when Aizen and Gin have healed, they haul the three of them back out into the desert— And they bring members of the eleventh division with them for back-up given that Zaraki Kenpachi would die before he let anything take him down, and the idea of fighting high-level Hollows excites him. This time, when they encounter an Adjuchas Hollow, they are able to take it down on their own.

And if Kira gets just a little flustered over the way Ayasegawa Yumichika croons over how  _ beautiful _ Wabisuke is in how deadly efficient it is, then so be it. It’s a good night.

Renji looks out toward an outcropping of rock, having long since learned that there  _ are _ landmarks out here in this vast nothingness, and freezes. A shape juts up from the flattest rock, cutting through the silhouette of the moon. He recognizes the shape of pale limbs and long black hair fluttering on the breeze and realizes the Vasto Lorde is staring.

Against any form of common sense, Renji raises his hand and waves.

He makes a surprised noise in the back of his throat, and Madarame Ikkaku whistles at him, when the Vasto Lorde— Byakuya— raises his arm back in greeting.

**Author's Note:**

> oh it's! hollow byakuya.
> 
> i've written this for byakuya's birthday, which was yesterday, and i have a great big sappy note to attach to it.
> 
> happy birthday niisama~ you are the entire reason i started watching bleach in the first place because i wasn't drawn to it at all until i knew you existed. everything about you drew me in from your no-nonsense attitude to the graceful style of your fighting to the hidden depths that your seemingly cold personality hid from view. i was touched by your backstory and the way you tried to take care of rukia. your relationship with renji is my favorite thing in bleach and i absolutely loved following your story all the way until the end. just between the two of us, that fight with as nodt was fucking incredible and maybe one of my favorite parts of bleach. it's definitely because of you that i've been able to write so much in such a short period of time, that i've made all these friends in the fandom and gotten to know so many people. thank you so much, byakuya <3


End file.
